EKIP– Expert Club for Economics and Politics A Different Opinion
Dear readers, as you know from the EKIP, we have been following the topic of regulations on cash payments and the current government's attempts to tighten it even further. In connection with the Ministry of Finance's latest attempt to reduce the limit of the allowable amount for cash payments to BGN 5,000, we have prepared and submitted a statement in which we categorically oppose this proposal, part of a bill to supplement the Value Added Tax Act. You can find our arguments against this specific bill in the text of our statement itself.
We recall that in June, a proposal was submitted to lower the ceiling of legally permissible cash payments to BGN 1,000. Subsequently, this proposal was softened to BGN 5,000, but it was also dropped in the plenary hall in July. Even then, we at the EKIP were highly critical of this proposal - not only will it have a number of negative effects, such as limiting the financial freedom of citizens, burdening small and medium-sized businesses with additional financial costs - but all research in the field shows that it will not achieve its goal. Namely - limiting the size of the shadow economy. You can find out more about the arguments of our economists against this regulation here, here and here. As well as in some of our media appearances on the topic in BiTelevision, NOVA, BloombergTV and TV+.
And although this proposal was dropped in July, a few weeks ago, on 14.09, the Ministry of Finance re-introduced a proposal to lower the limit to 5,000 leva, this time as part of a bill to supplement the Value Added Tax Act. We at EKIP are once again opposing this kind of reform and you can be sure that we will continue to do so. The next step is for our economist and editor-in-chief Georgi Vuldzhev to take part in the Finance Committee when the law is considered at first reading.
In the meantime, we also call on those of you who disagree with this reform to express your position on the draft law page on the public discussion site Strategy.bg, which you can find here.
